Senate leaders push scholarships for private schools

Lt. Gov. David Dewhurst visits with pupils after a news conference Wednesday at the Cathedral School of Saint Mary in Austin.

AUSTIN — Texas Senate leaders outlined an education reform plan Wednesday that emphasizes school choice and more competition but stops short of pushing private school vouchers.

The proposal, announced by Lt. Gov. David Dewhurst and Senate Education Committee chairman Dan Patrick, R-Houston, would allow businesses to offset their franchise tax by contributing to a nonprofit group that would use the money to fund private school scholarships for children in low-income families.

A business could get a credit for up to 25 percent of its franchise tax, although that percentage is not firm and no bill has been filed yet, the lawmakers said.

"It may end up that this is a pilot program," Dewhurst said. "We will start off with a modest program because we want to show that it works first."

Some form of vouchers could end up in the bill after Texas lawmakers convene next month, Patrick said later. A voucher bill limited to students with disabilities already has been pre-filed.

"We will look at all options," Patrick said.

Opponents of vouchers, meanwhile, called the proposed tax break a voucher program in disguise.

Former Cypress- Fairbanks ISD Superintendent David Anthony, the CEO of Raise Your Hand Texas, called it a subsidy for private schools and "a distraction (that) will slow progress on other needed reforms."

"It is regrettable that Senator Patrick chose to burden some otherwise sound proposals with the poison pill of school vouchers. Though the proposal is couched as a tax credit, make no mistake, this is a private school voucher," Anthony declared.

The reform proposal contained several other provisions:

It calls for more charter schools. The state now has a cap set at 215.

It would allow parents and students to choose any public school - in any school district, not just the one in which they live - as long as that school has capacity.

It would allow public school districts to operate more like a charter school, with flexibility to extend the school day or start the school year earlier than the law now allows.

It would address complaints about Texas' current school accountability system - allowing districts to decide whether to count state exams in students' grades - and elevate career and technology paths.

"Do they realize that most communities in Texas don't even have a private school? It's just so ridiculous," she said. "I would rather see our money go toward getting standards up in all public schools."

State-funded busing?

Lomax added that the prestigious private schools in Houston probably do not have space anyway.

She said she would not mind if the state funded busing so students could transfer to a different public school district, though space also could be a problem, particularly at the most desirable suburban campuses.

Mike Lunceford, president of the Houston school board, said he feared the plan would take away tax dollars from the public school system, which already suffered a $5.4 billion cut over the last two years. He also wondered how private schools would be held accountable.

"We have charters who are struggling and are not doing well, so shouldn't we clean them up before we add to the mix?" he said.

The Houston Independent School District already allows students to transfer to campuses throughout HISD, although some have waiting lists. HISD also accepts some transfers from other districts.

"I'm assuming their drive for vouchers is to help those students from lower socioeconomic environments that may have poor public schools and don't have options," Lunceford said. "HISD, we're fortunate, we're a district of choice."

HISD Superintendent Terry Grier said he thought businesses could put their money to better use.

"Why wouldn't they do that to fund scholarships for poor kids to go to college?" he asked.

Grier also wondered whether top private schools would admit the students and questioned whether the bill would really just help business owners and parents who already send their children to private schools.

Texas public schools enroll about 5 million children, including 135,000 students in public charter schools. Only about 235,000 Texas children attend private schools and 300,000 are home-schooled, Patrick said.

"Only 10 percent of our children are in a non-public school, so that's why our emphasis always has to be on lifting up our public schools," Patrick said. "And one of the ways to do that is through competition. That's what the public understands."